Work trip to Philadelphia, USA - 27th February to 2nd March 2007

I last went to Philadelphia around 8 months ago, when it was oppressively hot and sticky. No such problem this time, as clear, crisp wintry temperatures on my arrival, gave way to lovely spring sunshine by the time I left. This was a better time of year altogether to see the city looking its best.

Arriving at the dreaded US immigration, I noticed some very prominent signs which were titled "Assaulting a Federal Officer", and which proceeded to list the various possible penalties for doing such a thing in all kinds of different ways (with a weapon, with a firearm, etc). Probably a good idea to put the signs there, because after waiting in a queue for ages, only to get to the front and be asked stupid questions, in a confrontational way, by a complete idiot, assault is probably a very tempting option for many people. On this occasion, however, my immigration experience was suspiciously smooth - maybe they have realised that they have been a little over the top in the past (although I doubt this).

My hotel was again right in the city centre, on the square where City Hall stands - so in the most lively, most attractive, and all-round best part of town. I had a great view out of the window, of the famous Love Park and Statue, and a big selection of skyscrapers which thronged a dead straight boulevard through town.

Around the city centre are an absolute myriad of restaurants and other food places, as you would expect. One feature of these is that their menus feature a ridiculously complicated number of choices. For example, I went to buy a sandwich soon after I arrived. I ordered the size and filling from the menu, but was still asked about another 6 questions before somebody eventually handed me a sandwich - with cheese, without mustard, with toasted bread, without extra meat filling, with double salad, but of course without the dreaded honey mustard ranch dressing.

All of this made me think firstly that Americans are extremely fussy, or at least they demand and expect the right to be. Secondly, that restaurants, especially fast food places, dream up all of this unnecessary complexity, as a cunning marketing ploy to enable them to bewilder and therefore sell more to people. And thirdly, that they have some downright weird names for food - everybody has "signature fries", which are basically just fries that are done slightly differently and uniquely by that particular place. Why they have to call them "signature fries" to make them sound better, is beyond me. It is all so unnecessarily complicated, it reminds me of this

Americans are also a weird bunch in many, many other ways. They do some things, and say some things, that we would just never dream of doing, mainly because it would be stupid. The best example is probably how shockingly widespread the practice of wearing your mobile phone in a "holster" on your belt is. None of them seem to realise that it makes you look like an utter fool, so they all fall over themselves to do it anyway. They have rubbish mobile phones anyway, because a complete lack of competition in the mobile phone industry means that they can only get phones that we had a couple of years ago, and only then on something ridiculous like a 2-year contract.

Whilst I was there, I had an interesting conversation about how to go about watching "sports" in America - in particular the Philadelphia Eagles "football" team. They have a huge season ticket waiting list, and an extortionately-priced "club level" of premium seats. Does this sound familiar? My colleague who is a fan, gets a call every year to try to persuade him to buy the expensive seats. When he eventually came up on the regular season ticket waiting list, the cost was around $320 for an 8-home-game season. But, to get a season ticket, he first had to buy the "ownership licence" for the seat - kind of like a bond I guess - which is resellable on the open market, and gives the right to buy a season ticket. This costs $15,000 as a one-off upfront payment, and seat licences can cost $50,000 on the secondary market. Watch out for this at Arsenal before too long, with Keith Edelman proudly saying "we are learning from the cutting edge of sports marketing in the USA".

Another experience was from an ice hockey fan. When his team got to the end of season play offs, he was invited to buy tickets. He could only buy tickets for all the games his team could possibly play, if they went all the way - in one package. It all had to be paid for upfront. And, if his team didn't play the maximum number of games, he could only get his money back as a credit against renewing his season ticket for the following season. Again, I hope that the Arsenal directors are not reading this.

Anyway, it was great to see Philadelphia without sweating buckets this time - and I got to talk to more Americans and get to know them better. It is a strange place, and I'm not sure I'd like to live here - the thought of eating processed turkey almost every day is not a terribly appealing one to be honest. Nevertheless, a good trip, and I'll be back before too long I'm sure.